THE EARTHQUAKE IN JAPAN. AN APPALLING DISASTER.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 300, 19 September 1888, Page 5

THE EARTHQUAKE IN JAPAN. AN APPALLING DISASTER.

Ab an early hour on July 15th a terrible disaster f/ook plnco at "Wabamatsu, Fuku-

slmma Prefecture Japan, when the mountain known as Bandaizau burst forth into flame. This was followed by a lono- scries of earthquake shocks and fierce showers of debris that continued for hours. The following account o v the ienible calamity was furnished the Maiuichi Shimbun by an occasional correspondent, on July 18th :—

A (JKAPHIC ACCOUNT. On (he luth inst. at 7.25 in tho morning, tho inomenb the shock of cailhquake occurred, I hcaicl a loud .sound like thunder, and miming out of my house 1 saw a terrible scene. 1 soon determined it must be an eruption of Banclaizun, and immediately started for that placo, accompanied by a friend and two servants. Proceeding about six English miles we an i\ ed at a \ illjge formerly cal'ed Otoiamura, and as it was near noon wo le&ted at ti tea-house in that \illaoc, where we met four wounded poisons. Ono of these persons had been hit on his head by a stone ejected hum Bandaizan, and it was impossible to -top the blood that was streaming from this wound ; another had his right hand broken and two othcis weio wounded in se\cral places.. 13cs.de «, tho backs of all these foui were burned and blackened by the sulphur, and piece* cf stone still i cmained in the wounds. Fiom these wounded pei-ons we learned the number ot the \ipitoit- (o the hot s-piing ic^oits on Haudai/an to ha\ebeen 250, ot whom thov said only four escaped death. Leaving the tea-house, when we had ascended the mountain about two mile's we found (he ashes weie "-(ill pouring foit'i. The i-olour of the ashes was cli.uk gieen, and when lighted the} bi.incd. The higher we ascended the mount mi the deeper the ashes became, and as we fuither ascended, two miles above, wo met -omo police and inhabitant^ ot the neighbouihood can \ ing dwn two eoip.-e>. They stopped us, on Iho ground that it would be dausro'ou^ to a-cend any futhei. but despite theii rdxice wo loiccl' our way and at last i cached neai t u top ut the mountain, where the hot spring icsoits wcie situated To our surpiisc, howe\er, a hoi «-piing hou-o and a hut in a damaged condition weie the only objects Lo be t-een theie, while tho hot •=pnng re-oits formeily situated half \\\i) up the mountain are now at the top, and all the places abo\o tho hot spung icsoit-^ had been utterly demolished. When we looked around from t hi-, place we saw nu neiouupheavalf ot sand and a.-hes, and of locks, like bou-jO, in a field called Akimotohara, whcie the number* oi the dead .vera, among other places, unmet ous. Of those who perished j-ome had both then 1 lunch and feet cut oil, while otheis were lying under the hut-, or wee buiicd by the sand and ashes till the coi p-cs picsented a dailc colour a? if they had been scotched by gunpowder We al.-o snv thcie, on the top of the mountain, i.umeious corpses ot ycung me ), but did not sec any of old men and women. Peihapo when the ciuption occuued the foimer escaped as far as they could, but the la^tei, having natuiaUy boon unable to csca|)e fast, would have been htcially cut to [>iccL.s to such an e.Uent thau thcii cor[).ses became in\ isible, or had been buried deep under the ashts and lock?. The j lace to which we at last ascended stems not to have bten \itited by the inhabitants we met while aoceiidiiig the mountain. Them were no footprints, and the ashes being heaped up horn one to two or thieo feet in height, it was with gieat difficulty that we walked on. While thus proceeding, we suddenly eamo upon a crc\ ice of some lour oi five lest w ide which escaped out notice, and I con-equentiy tell into the same to a depth ot some twelve feet, but foi tunately escaped without injui y. We tncd to appioach the ciater fiom w Inch the ciuptions emanated, but the caith all around vat so burned and the <-ulphur smell so strong and obnoviou-, that we could not net near the place. The pumbci of pei.-oiis- wouiidcd, who aic now under medical attendance, h 18. ot whom 6 are sciiously and 12 slightly wounded ; the total number of the popula tion damaged by the late eatas tophe, cither directly oi iudiicctly, is 2.447, of whom 763 are dnect Millo'cis, and o\ei 1,980 aic indiiectlv injuied and are unable to piowde for themselves ; of 760 direct sufleicis, 12 are now suppoitcd bv the Kenchoand ovei 700aie&oon to bcpiox ide«i foi. Tho larger poitiou of land damaged was in the uncultivated region, and the land where the population is most numerous and which was well cult \atcd leeched only slight damage Thematteia connected with the aid of the sullereis aic being satis--factoiil} attended to.